Heavy Stormclouds
Blurb Heavystorm is a clanborn AppleClan cat, but he is constantly teased and shunned for being "as fat as a kittypet." He tries not to let the teasing get to him, but that is difficult when even his mother and littermates have shunned him since kithood. Will he be able to overcome his reputation and prove himself as a true warrior? Or will he snap before he can do so? Written by Cinderstar. Characters AppleClan Heavystorm: plump dark gray tom with white patches and blue eyes. Rosethorn: Ginger she-cat with amber eyes. Spiderfang: Skinny black tom with ice-blue eyes Snowwhisper: Beautiful, graceful white she-cat with a shiny pelt and warm, soft blue eyes. Frostgaze: White she-cat with ice-blue eyes. Sunblaze: Ginger tom with amber eyes and golden patches. Nutfall: Golden brown tabby tom wth amber eyes and a white splash on his chest. Seedstar: Tortiseshell she-cat with green eyes. Pearleaf: Gray she-cat with green eyes. Rockheart: Gray and black tom with ice blue eyes. RedClan Ginger she-cat apprentice with amber eyes. Stonenose: Gray tabby tom with a grey nose. Prologue Sunblaze appeared at the entrance of he nursery, looking out into the camp. The sky was darkening, and stars where appearing. "Nutpaw!" He called to his apprentice. "Could you get Pearleaf?" He struggled to keep his voice calm. "Frostgaze's kits are coming." Nutpaw nodded and raced towards the medicine cat den, which was in a hollowed out boulder. Sunblaze shifted his paws as time dragged out with no one exiting the medicine cat den. A moon seemed to pass before Pearleaf emerged, and Frostgaze's yowls echoed in his ears. The whole clan seemed to stop what they were doing and gazed at the nursery. Sunblaze could sense excitement filling the air. The clan only had one kit at the moment, after the clan had suffered from a particularly bad bought of kittencough. Snowkit was so sweet, and every cat spoiled her. They could tell she'd grow up to be a great warrior, and a beautiful one at that. The clan was excited for new lives entering the world, especially because they'd grow up to be AppleClan warriors. Sunblaze himself was espceially excited, because these would be his kits, he would be a father. He turned around to enter the den when he saw Pearleaf blocking the way. "Sorry, you can't watch. Toms are too stressed and become a nuscience when their kits are being born. Nutpaw, you have to leave too." Nutpaw dipped his head and exited the nursery. Reluctantly, Sunblaze left the den, but he didn't go far. He settled himself down near the entrance to the nursery, and waited. As he kept his vigil, the moon rose higher in the sky. Cats grew bored of waiting for the new kits and soon the camp was empty except for Sunblaze and a few other warriors. He began to feel his eyelids droop when he was nudged awake. "Sunblaze, it's finished. You have three healthy, beautiful kits, and Frostgaze is fine." Pearleaf announced, her eyes shining with happiness. "She wants to name them." Sunblaze sprang to his paws and dashed into the nursery. The white fur of his mate seemed to glow in the darkness. Her ice-blue eyes looked up at him. "There's two toms and a she-cat." Frostgaze purred. "I want to name the she-cat Rosekit, because of her ginger pelt, that and the fact she looks kind of like my mother, Rosestar." "The skinny black tom can be Spiderkit." Sunblaze suggested. He glanced at the last kit. It was a gray tabby tom with white patches and blue eyes. "The gray tom looks like a kittypet. His belly's so big! He must of taken Spiderkit's weight!" His voice was teasing, but he felt concern. Frostgaze's eyes mirrored how he felt. "Pearleaf said once he gets active enough, he'll burn it off. Kits do have a lot of energy. But if it doesn't, I'm not sure how good a warrior he'll make. That belly will slow him down, and he'll only hunt as well as a kittypet." "Let's name his Heavykit, after the Heavystep of our legends, the cat who died three times. Let's hope Heavykit has a long life too." Sunblaze meowed. Though what he had said was only part of the reason for Heavykit's name. It would become the sole reason if he burned off that weight, but if he didn't... If he didn't, the name would suit him. "Heavykit it is." Frostgaze agreed. Chapter 1 Heavystorm raced through the apple orchard that made up AppleClan territory. Long ago twolegs had come and farmed the apples, before AppleClan existed, but suddenly, they had stopped coming. A group of cats had decided it would be the perfect place to start a clan. And that, according to the elders was the start of AppleClan. There was one neighbouring clan, RedClan. The founders of the clans, Apple and Red, had sworn it'd be a place where all cats would be known for their strenths, not their weaknesses, as the founders had been driven from their former homes because of their weaknesses. Red and Apple had been best friends, littermates even, and they wanted peace between their clans. Neither promise that hadn't been kept recently. RedClan and AppleClan were rivals. Now, how ironic it was that Heavystorm was fleeing the camp because of his weaknesses. He needed some time alone, some time to think. Fact is, Heavystorm was a little on the chubby side. No matter how much he ran and excersized, the extra weight would burn off. Every cat said he looked more like a kittypet than a warrior. Heavystorm cringed as he remembered his apprentice ceremony. His mentor, Nutfall, had openly complained about getting him as an apprentice, saying that with his weight, he'd never make a warrior. Nutfall had never believed in him, and had resented the thought that his first apprentice had the least potential to make a great warrior. Heavystorm always insisted he could do it, but even when he did, Nutfall had never had any more belief in him. To make matters worse, he was shunned by his family. As soon as it became apparent that he wouldn't loose any weight from the hyper antics of kithood, they started excluding him. He always got the least amount of milk, and got played with the least. Rosekit and Spiderkit, who were now known as Rosethorn and Spiderfang, had excluded his from their games and constantly teased him. Even his father, though he seemed to love him more than any other cat had, made mean remarks about his weight and showed more favouritism to Spiderfang and Rosethorn. As he matured, he noticed almost every cat in the clan had teased hhim, or at least hadn't treated him the same as other cats. He fought to fight down his anger. He was a peaceful cat, and he hated anger, hate and fighting. He even felt bad about fighting RedClan cats. He believed they should be allies, like Red and Apple had planned the clans to be, countless seasons ago. To calm his mind, he thought of Snowwhisper. Snowwhisper was a beautiful white she-cat, and she was pretty much the only cat in all of AppleClan who not only didn't make fun of his weight, but she was really nice to him. She was his only friend in the whole clan, and she was nicer to him then she was to any other cat in the clan. Spiderfang was jelous about this, and Heavystorm knew he was in love with the pretty she-cat, but He didn't care. Snowwhisper was his best and only friend, and no cat, not even Spiderfang, could take that away from him. Thinking of Spiderfang brought him back to the reason he left the camp in the place. He'd been sharing toungues with Snowwhisper, when Spiderfang had padded up to them. He asked Snowwhisper if she'd wanted to go hunting with him. She agreed to, as long as Heavystorm could come along. Spiderfang had agreed, although Heavystorm could tell his brother had been reluctant. While out hunting, Heavystorm had been seperated from them, having been chasing a particularly tasty looking rabbit. After catching it, he had returned to Spiderfang and Snowwhisper. As he was approaching them, he had heard Spiderfang's voice. "Do you really like Heavystorm, he's such a kittypet! I bet he didn't even catch that rabbit, it'd be too fast for him!" Heavystorm hadn't waited to hear Snowwhisper's reply, he knew he wouldn't be able to bear it if his only friend spoke against him. He had dropped the rabbit, and not caring whether they heard him or not, raced through the forest. And here he was, tears streaming down his face, every thought he thought up bringing him back to him weight. Though he tried to suppress it, anger bubbled up inside of him. Red mist filled his vision. Couldn't cats accept him for who he was, not what he looked like? He stopped in his tracks when RedClan scent reched his nose. He hadn't realized how close he'd been to the border. He turned around to head deeper into AppleClan territory. He didn't think he could bear the humiliation if a RedClan cat saw him cry. Besides, the red mist hadn't quite disappeared, and he didn't want any cat getting hurt. Suddenly a voice spoke up behing him. "Look Stonenose, that AppleClan cat is as fat as a kittypet!" Heavystorm spun around to see who'd spoken. It was a ginger RedClan she-cat, and apprentice by the looks of it. She looked at him with her spiteful amber eyes. The image seemed to be imprinting itself in his memory. Red mist filled his vision more, until he could only see the apprentice. He unsheathed his claws and leaped towards her. He felt him claws rip through fur, and his jaws bite through flesh. The next thing he knew the ginger she-cat was lying dead on the ground, bleeding into the grass. "You killed my apprentice." Stonenose stared at him with a hateful look in his eyes. "Don't you teach your apprentices to keep you mouth shut!" Heavystorm yowled with pain in his voice. He was shaking. How could he kill and innocent cat? The red mist had faded, and he knew now it wouldn't be her spiteful gaze, but her dead body that would be imprinted in his memory forever. "I'm sorry." He whispered. "I didn't want to kill her, I've just had a bad day, and I've been called a kittypet one too many times. I know that's not an excuse, but I just snapped. I'm sorry, please forgive me." He looked at the RedClan cat with pleading eyes. Stonenose stared at him for a while, than picked up the dead apprentices body and padded out of sight. As Heavystorm watched the RedClan warrior go, he felt dispair wash over him, and he slumped to the ground, unable to stand up for all the pain he was feeling. Chapter 2 It was sunset before any cat found him. Throughout the day, Heavystorm had worked on getting up off the ground and cleaning the blood of his paws. He was now sitting with his head down, staring at the bloodstained grass, and unwilling to go back to camp yet. Heavystorm heard pawsteps and raised his head to see a patrol of AppleClan cats, lead by the clan deputy, Rockheart. It was obvoiusly a search patrol. "We found him! Heavystorm, I was so worried about you." Snowwhisper meowed happily. Heavystorm's ears pricked. She did like him! "Big deal." He heard Spiderfang mutter. Heavystrom's heart dropped. He wondered if his brother would be secretly hoping he wouldn't be found so he could have Snowwhisper to himself. "Stop it." Rockheart growled at Spiderfang. "Now, will you anwser one question for me? Why is there blood on the grass?" Heavystorm's blood ran cold. How could he explain? It was only when Rockheat pointed it out that the rest of the search patrol noticed. Snowwhisper was staring at the pool of blood in horror, while Spiderfang seemed to look at it with satisefaction. "I-I sort of killed a RedClan apprentice when she made fun of me." Heavystorm admitted. Gasps echoed throughout the patrol. "B-But I didn't mean to! I wish I hadn't!" He tried to defend himself. "I was angry, because everyone makes fun of my weight. The apprentices words where the last straw, I snapped. I'm so sorry, I couldn't be more sorry. I don't like killing cats! I feel awful. I keep seeing her dead body...The shocked expression on her face..." "Ha!" Spiderfang yowled, looking deeply satisefied. "A murderer can't stay in the clan! You'll be kicked out for sure!" "Stop." Rockheart told him. "What's done is done. What matters is, how did RedClan react? Was any cat with her?" "Her mentor was." Heavystorm explained. "Stonenose. And I asked for his forgiveness, but he turned away without a word." Pain pierced his heart at the way the RedClan warrior had so readily turned down his apology and walked away. But then again, what could you expect from a cat whose apprentice had just been murdered. Rockheart hissed. "Stupid Furball. RedClan could launch a war on us for this. There's nothing holding them back from attacking, they've got every right to. Come, we must report this to Seedstar. We'll deal with your punishment back at camp." Heavystorm bowed his head with shame. He fell in step beside Snowwhisper, hoping for a little comfort. He turned to look at her with his blue eyes. "Spiderfang was right." Snowwhisper told him coldly. "He said you don't belong in AppleClan, and I thought he was a jerk for saying so, but he's right. You broke the warrior code, and you're a murderer!" "Snowwhisper, no, you're my only friend. Don't leave me!" Heavystorm wailed. "I don't understand why you killed that apprentice. How could you lose control of your temper like that? You're the calmest cat I know, it doesn't make sense." Snowwhisper explained. "You're not the cat I thought you were, and I can't be friends with you if I don't understand who you are." "I overheard Spiderfang talking to you, I couldn't bear to hear your answer, if you didn't like me, so I ran off. I was angry at him, he's trying to take you away from me, you're my only friend ever! Then that apprentice came along and called me as fat as a kittypet. Maybe it's true, but I'm tired of cats judging me for what I look like instead of who I am inside. I snapped, I shouldn't have, but I did. It was one harsh comment too many." Heavystorm explained desperately. "Spiderfang's been pushing me down our whole lives-" Snowwhisper cut him off. "I'm tired of hearing your excuses! Spiderfang is a nice cat, don't talk about him like that. And I defended you when he spoke against you! But he saw through you the whole time, he knows who you truly are, he tried to warn me, to reveal your true self, and I wouldn't listen. Now I will. I can't trust you anymore, but I can trust him." Heavystorm watched in dispair as Snowwhisper, the only friend he's ever had in the whole world, padded away from him to join his brother. He felt a pain in his chest like a thorn had plunged deep into his heart, and it felt like he'd lost so much more than his only friend in the world. He watched, filled with dispair and hopelessness as Snowwhisper began to talk happily with Spiderfang, and his brother turned his head around to flash a triumphant look filled with evilness that Heavystrom could not explain or comprehend. Chapter 3 A few days had passed since Heavystorm had killed the RedClan apprentice. He still felt traumatized by it, and could still see her body bleeding into the grass. Thankfully Seedstar hadn't punished him for it. She felt, and Heavystorm had to agree, that loosing his only friend and the guily conscience and memories he'd be left with would be enough. Heavystorm spend most of his days hunting and doin patrols, for once not trying to prove his skills as a warrior, but trying to keep himself busy enough to not think about the apprentice. This only worked a bit, but it was enough to keep him satisefied. more coming soon Category:Cinderstar of ThunderClan's fanfics Category:Red Apples Series Category:Fan Fictions Category:Fanfics